August 24th, 1919

Colognia, Germania

Public Bar

[Robert Zettours POV] 

2 Weeks has passed since the war ended and the news that the Kaiser has fled the country and had seek asylum in Aetherland in this world. 

The first thought that has come to mind in the past few weeks is that, my knowledge is useless since I'm in a new world, with a set of new rules and history. 

And as for my circumstances, it's best to summarize is that I'm fairly lucky that I was spared by the army and given a chance to stay instead of being forcefully axed so to speak and not receiving any money at all. 

The second thing to address is that of this man's family that I was inhabiting and knowing that I have to take care of them and also get used to these changes and not suffer an identity crisis early on into my Reincarnation. Besides these challenges that laid upon me by the almighty that given me a second chance in life, I have to say, it isn't bad to say as my life in this world is fairly stable. 

I looked through every memory of that I've assimilated from childhood to what I am now, is that I have I figured out key things that I should care and follow through. First off, my dad died when I was 8, my mom and I had to find odd jobs to survive and eventually founded a restaurant which was a lucky break on our part since my mom in this world had a talent of cooking and was able to give both me and my littl sister proper education before the war hit and I had to enlist in the army, while my sister was also enlisted as a medic. 

Of course our mom hated it at first, but she knew she couldn't fight against our decision to serve the Empire. I was slightly surprised on the empire allowing women in the army, although I could only see female soldiers doing odd jobs ranging from logistics, medical, and being secretaries and such, which was a welcome sight, at least to me. 

After the war though, and after I gathered my thoughts, I went to visit my sister who was on her way to visit mother and surprised our mother that we were home and very much alive. 

I slightly gloated a bit, due to my pride as a man that I've won medals for my sister and for my mom and just only joked about it for a few minutes as they only smiled as they knew I was coping with the scars that the war has given me and enjoyed my stories so to speak, as if I'm talking like the deceased Robert who has inhabited this body. 

I promised to myself that I'll protect his family in his place and make them proud, and also eventually try to rise through the ranks within the military and establish a company and plan accordingly. 

And last but not least, I was surprised at my appearance, I was decently good looking with silver eyes, lean athletic build, and about 5'8 in height, which surprised me a bit since I didn't realize until after a week before my discharge within the hospital that I could finally borrow a mirror and take a. Look at my appearance. 

I'm still quite baffled on how battle hardened I am and how desensitized I am to dead bodies and the like. I concluded was that this body's and memories that it experienced during the time in the western front. Heck, it even participated in the battle of Verdun, to which I was told by one of my comrades beside my bed that it was one of the bloodiest battles in the western front as the casualty count numbered around almost 1.1 million in that battle alone., which shocked me a bit. What's even more shocking is that the war lasted for 5 years instead of 4, which in my mind was boggling to think since it wouldn't just be 40 million dead it would be more and the thought of it pisses me off is that a flu epidemic has started to spread in key parts of Europe, especially in Germania. Which deeply worries me as it would add more deaths to this God forsaken war. 

And adding nail to the coffin was that the Treaty of Versailles, same in my future, was a bit more harsher than intended. 

It basically neutered any capabilities for a standing army within Germany by reducing the army numbers to 75,000 along with banning in making weapons, and trading them with other powers as well. Of course the German people along with the military screamed bloody murder and demanded another chance to rectify the said treaty, but it was already signed and there was nothing we could do but bite our teeth and shoulder all the blame that the treaty imposed on us. 

In my honest opinion, the treaty wasn't harsh on paper, but combining on the shit storm that's about to hit Germania would cripple us and it would be a miracle to survive the oncoming challenge that the Germania economy will face along with the dropping of the Mark value drastically. 

On that footnote, I planned about a dozen scenario in my head on how to tackle this problem, fortunately, I can try to invent something that's usable and easily marketable in this era, for example the Ballpoint pen. It was invented in my time-line after ww1 and was popular among the elites, politicians, merchants, even the military. Hence I'm gonna start from there. 

The issue In hand was to get the money to start with. My entire savings I had saved throughout my military career along with my savings piled up when I was helping my mom to about 20,000 Marks. It was a lot of money for now, but I knew this amount would be useless soon if I don't act fast. 

Hence why I visited the bar to meet with a man named Robert Bosch, a fairly middle aged man who has seen better days as I shake hands with him and waited for him to settle down, drink a couple of beers and hopefully convincing the man to sell his factory to me since in this world, he was struggling to sell his invention to the industrialist and to the agricultural board. 

After we chatted about superficial things such as family, life, we get straight to business in pitching my idea to Robert. 

"Mr. Bosch, you and I both know that your factory is struggling  financially right now, and I'm here to help so to speak."

Robert looked at me with a leveled stare as he replied warily. "and what help would you give me Mr Zettour?" 

I then grabbed my brief case, and grabbed a couple of Manila envelopes and presented it to him and pitched my idea to him in a business like manner, and with confidence that will hopefully convince the man to also invest in my idea. I knew it wouldn't be easy as this man knew entertaining or even investing in my invention is a risky venture, but I masked my nervousness with the words that sounded like I'm pitching salesman from the 1960s

"This Mr. Bosch, is why I called you here. To have us both work in my...let's  say a prototype invention that will be popular within the elitism sphere of Germania. Additionally, we can even accept custom orders in the near future for our product to bloom much quicker in the competitive market."

Bosch, who was still skeptical and felt deceived by this man, entertained the idea for now and opened the Manila envelopes and grabbed his glasses to read them. After a few minutes of rereading eeverything, he put down his glasses and stared at me for a good moment before speaking. 

"I must say Mr. Zettour, this invention of yours... Will it really be popular?" since his invention sort of failed in his eyes. 

But for me, his invention will push Germania into the better path and future as I answered him with passion and confidence "Yes Mr. Bosch. My invention will be popular, and I need your help to realize my dream, and I would love to share my dream with you. In exchange, if I am successful, I will also help in investing and giving publicity to your invention to the government and from there, we will both be able to overcome our challenge and prosper Germania together. "

In what seems like forever, Bosch replied." Then Mr. Zettour, my future is in your hands. " He smiled tiredly, but what has he got to lose?" Happy Cooperation Mr. Zettour. "

" Likewise, Mr. Bosch. If I may ask Mr. Bosch, how many factories do you own where is it located?" 

He replied, drinking his beer." It's in the Industrial area within Colognia. I own about 4-5 Factories with the recent one that was given to me by a business friend of mine. "

Hearing those words, I smiled as my plan is slowly coming together as I inquired about the machinery, how many people employed under him, and the conditions. 

He answered my inquiries and I have to say, Mr. Bosch treated his people under him fairly well and I was not disappointed, although buying new machineries to manufacture ballpoint pens and hiring guards, adding new clauses to ensure that the workers will follow everything I say, Bosch also agreed to give me Co-Owner, after a bit of heavy convincing on my part as I understand that the company he owned was his life's work. 

Then we got to work by contracting from another company that manufactures customer machine parts to let us build the one I showed from the Manila envelope. 

There's one thing I'm grateful though is that my drawing isn't bad, hence they were able to replicate some parts and put them all together. 

It took a lot of work, time, money, but after almost 2 months, we got the prototype out and tested it. And succeeded on making my invention. 

Then we stress tested the machine, and went on to rename the company to Fortuna Industries. My plan whom I shared with Bosch, will be to expand our vision and profit first off my invention before Introducing more ideas on the table. 

Of course promoting a product is in another question in itself, fortunately, I can promote my product directly towards my friends, and officers within the army, and eventually advertising it on the open market. Hence me and Bosch decided to invest around 15,000 Marks in advertising our product on public super markets, etc, etc. 

The results would vary since from my predictions, we would see if my invention or product was a success or not, hopefully it is since I've researched everywhere, even went to the library to find the man who would invent the pen, but came up with nothing, hence I took a gamble on this and left it all to chance and hopefully, just hopefully this is my first step in financing the Germanian military. And from there, we can start rebuilding Germania from scratch. 

With that, we got to work. 

[A Few Days Later, Somewhere in Berlun] 

[9:32 Pm. Undisclosed Location] 

A man that wore a cap, a typical worker baggy pants and jumpers briefly looked around to see if anyone is looking. 

After he double checks, he knocked at the door that says closed at the front. He knocked heavy 3 times and light knock 2 times before the door opened and he entered the establishment. 

Once the attendant closed the door fairly quickly, the said man took a look around and found the spot that the said meeting will take place. 

He then sat down in front of 4 distinguished gentlemen, with masks on their faces to avoid being recognized. 

The first man with a tear mask spoke first

"Is it done?" He said. 

The man replied confidently, with a bit of nervousness since he couldn't offend these men or he will never see the light of day. 

"Yes, It is done per your orders. They won't bother you anymore in the future." The man said, for him, he is a hired thug, a low budget Assassin that was hired by these 3 gentlemen to kill off small business owners. Of course he tried to question why he needed to do it, but the moment they showed the money, the man was blinded with greed and didn't bother to answer and did the job, no questions asked. 

"Good, here is your payment." The second gentlemen with a star on his mask spoke. 

A briefcase was then lifted up by the said man and presented the contents in front of the man. Inside the case were a total of 10,000 Marks, which was substantial for a hired low class Assassin like him and hell probably retire for life in his mind. 

But the third gentlemen who has a fist symbol on his upper right eye of the mask spoke the final words that the man heard before everything went black. 

"But it's a shame that you don't live to see the day." the third gentleman said, before pulling out a pistol and aiming at the man. 

"Whats that supposed to me-" The man said his final words before the third gentleman shot him in the head. The said man had a shocked expression before his body fell down front first in the floor and the establishment went quiet for a moment before resuming activities. 

The second gentleman closed the briefcase and said "Let's hope our plan works. We don't want a fuck up like last time on Naples." He said. 

"It will not happen again. This time, we have time and money on our side. We will slowly own and break the German economy brick by brick, just like how they broke Serbia." The first gentleman said, laughing quite devilishly as he said the final words before leaving the said establishment."

"All for Serbia, for the hand of the Maiden" 

The second and third gentleman also copied what the man said before following him outside of the establishment. 

""All for Serbia, for the hand of the Maiden"" 

AS for the dead body, he was tossed out somewhere in berlun where he the Police would later settled in a robbery gone wrong ng as the said men had a missing watch and his wallet.